3D-Hub Updates its 3D-Hub Player
Interactive 3D teaching software provider 3D-Hub has released its latest version of its 3D Player.
The company says it’s confident the dynamic and instinctive software will become the most widely used to view stereo 3D content, not only in the educational sector but in other sectors too.
With this release, the updated 3D-Hub Player (version 5.6) delivers the stereo 3D industry’s broadest media compatibility across the widest range of compatible computer and display platforms, whilst also supporting accessibility in any language.
The newly upgraded software extends its coverage of media types by introducing interactive stereo 3D viewing for many variants of industry standard OBJ, STL, and OFF files. This gives users access to large libraries of existing 3D models as well as an easy way to create new models of their own via applications like 123D® and 123D Catch® from Autodesk®. With the addition of OFF file support, output by medical CAT Scan equipment and other industrial 3D scanning devices can also be viewed interactively in stereo 3D.
The updated 3D-Hub Player also expands the wide range of 3D still imagery formats that is supported. With v5.6, the Player adds the MPO format, allowing the native images from industry standard 3D cameras to be input with no pre-processing. In addition, optional support has been added for the dual stream input from stereo 3D document cameras such as those from Lumens.
Extending stereo 3D output options, 3D-Hub now offers an upgrade to the 3D-Hub Player which includes support for the Color Code 3D™ (C3D) system. C3D is a uniquely cost effective solution for viewing stereo 3D imagery that does not require special monitors or screens and employs inexpensive passive glasses. C3D also preserves colours unlike similar anaglyph stereo 3D solutions.
Further enhancing its push to provide the most cost effective solution for stereo 3D viewing, the 3D-Hub Player is unique in its ability to produce stereo 3D output while running on standard PCs available everywhere. The Player runs on all the same high end graphics processors as other stereoscopic 3D applications, but with v5.6, stereo 3D output can also be created on machines running with consumer level Intel HD4000® graphics system, or any recent AMD® graphics chip from that company’s Radeon® product line.
The theme of expanding accessibility continues on the user side as well. In order to make stereo 3D lesson technology available to educators globally, the v5.6 3D-Hub Player includes a simple mechanism for translating its interactive 3D lessons into any of the 200 plus standard Unicode classified languages. Resulting translation files can be shared with other 3D-Hub users or sent back to 3D-Hub in exchange for store credit, as part of the company’s translation bounty program.
Finally, the new release of the 3D-Hub Player incorporates an improved user interface. The new content control panel has more intuitive control buttons, and the whole panel can be removed from view or fixed in view with the click of a button. The new interface is also easier for content creators to work with and hence opens up the authoring process further to more 3D artists.
Kurt Bowen, Production Director of 3D-Hub, commented: “The latest version of the 3D-Hub Player broadly expands the range of media types which can be displayed in stereo 3D. It also lowers the hardware cost to do so. It delivers interactive 3D results in easily translatable form and makes sharing translations simple. It expands creative options and production efficiency for 3D content creators looking to build interactive training and educational material. We believe the 3D-Hub Player should be considered a standard tool for any facility looking to take advantage of stereo 3D viewing capability.”